Taking abandoned steppe in succession of Liudaogou watershed in the semi-arid area on the Loess Plateau as the research site,we studied the characteristics of the water budget of the successive steppe during the years with different rainfall patterns by using the data of precipitation(P),evapotranspiration(ET), soil moisture(S),vegetation structure during 20142017.The results indicated that:(1)in the early stage of observation,the soil water content in 050 cm soil layer showed a slowly decreasing trend during years with normal annual rainfall;after the rainstorm (109.60 mm/d)in the third year,the soil water content in the later stage increased generally,but fluctuated greatly,and the soil water consumption was obvious with the increase of ET;(2)the annual total ET increased year by year,and the interannual variations of ET were mainly influenced by climatic conditions during years with normal annual rainfall,but affected by biomass during rainy years;(3)the water budget showed seasonal characteristics,and the dry period for steppe was from February to June,while the period from July to next year's January was the rainy season;the four-year observation showed that the steppe was in a state of water deficit(165.60 mm in all),and there was a large amount of consumption of deep soil water(below the depth of 50 cm).The results showed that the continuous loss of soil water in steppe was the important cause of steppe succession,and the huge consumption of deep soil water during the successive process may lead to the worse soil water condition for the secondary steppe.Therefore,anthropogenic intervention needs to be reinforced in case of further steppe degradation.